Summer holidays are looming, in just 3.5 weeks our beloved young people will be bounding out of their places of eduction declaring that School really is out for summer! This will shortly be followed 2 days later by cries of I'm bored and complaining that there's nothing to do, everywhere they go is rubbish and you'll smack your head off the desk wondering if they've had 6 weeks off already!
Now I think I'm pretty good at mumming, I've done it for nearly 20 years after all and I've got 3 confessions of things I've done in the past which might just make you feel less guilty.
1. Once or twice when the kids were younger and not so time aware I would put the clock forward and play a pre-recorded bedtime hour from Cbeebies, "Oh look, it's bedtime, it's seven o clock" it worked when they were three but now they're teens I find it's not quite so successful! This works better in the summer than in the winter because you can just say it's later but it's still light because the days are so long, they will never ever know...
2. All out bribery, I have resorted to all kinds of bribery when I have needed to work but my lovely kids wanted to do something, I'll offer them anything so I can finish writing emails/editing/doing admin, actually I did find that the perfect solution was to employ my son and now he does some of the admin (as little as he can get away with).
3. I employ all of my children during summer, from coming along to work (on the promise of going somewhere after with the money they've earned) to sorting out laundry it started with small tasks in exchange for small amounts of money and now they've become the negotiators they'll do pretty much anything as long as it's for the right amount of money!
The truth of the matter though is I'm a self employed single mum and I can't do everything, I'd love to take 6 whole weeks off with the kids but I've not figured out a way to get paid for doing nothing although I'm getting better at having a passive income. I don't think any of my confessions ever put any of them at harm though and if anything they've become entrepreneurs in their own right. It's actually great to be self employed and nice to juggle because I still get to spend more time with them than some parents get to spend with their kids and for that I am truly grateful.
This post is an entry for BritMums Confessions of a Summer Parent Challenge, sponsored by Anchor
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